Of course, people will pay for good product, but premium version not offer nothing crucial which make you more secure and not worth money. And is not only about Ads, Avast is also hidden data collector (spyware). This popups are scam, makes people afraid that something is wrong, then they probably buy it. But those usually happen to people with zero PC knowledge and old people which as I see Avast focus. No is really not security risk if my IP is visible or I not use Avast browser.
Avast should be premium AV, for basic defence is Windows defender enough. So I would remove Free version completely, keeping only one version of Avast with all good features (except bloatware), no ads, no spyware, just protection, speed, reliability. Then this product worth my money.
But I understand this not happen, Free version users are still very useful for unknown new threats, which Avast uploads to their virus lab and of course for data collection (spyware).